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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27891913">A Simple Way Out</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/YankyDoodle/pseuds/YankyDoodle'>YankyDoodle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Changeling OC, F/M, Follows the story for the most part, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Maybe a bit of fluff, POC OC, Sexual Harassment, Spoilers, bular is trying to pursue you, he will be aggressive about his affections but she does not feel the same, idk this is my first story so I’m trying things</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:34:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Rape/Non-Con, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,120</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27891913</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/YankyDoodle/pseuds/YankyDoodle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Christine Bennett is both kind in nature and treacherous at heart. Raised as the mayor’s daughter to keep face and to hide the truth, she had virtually no problem hiding away from the world, hiding the fact that she was a changeling. So what is she supposed to do when her new mission not only conflicts her heart, but also everything she has ever done to keep her identity safe</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jim Lake Jr. (Tales of Arcadia) &amp; Original Character(s), Jim Lake Jr. (Tales of Arcadia) &amp; Original Female Character(s), Jim Lake Jr. (Tales of Arcadia)/Reader, Jim Lake Jr./Original Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Simple Way Out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The story will mostly stick to the plot but will change when needed.<br/>⚠️Trigger warning⚠️<br/>Bular is interested in Christine and tries to make many advances on her, both aggressive and threatening so I thought I’d warn against that just in case, not in this chapter specifically but for future references. I will also be putting a warning when it happens in future chapters.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em> Inhale, exhale.  </em>
</p><p>That’s all I can do, as I dash through the forest. Distant roars call out my name.  </p><p>“Christine, stop running!”</p><p><em> Bular </em>. </p><p>He’s the one I am so desperately running from. Tree branches smash to the ground, the sounds of his feet becoming louder as I slow from exhaustion. Whatever chance I had to escape was thwarted as my body was tackled to the ground, my body rolled with the heavy, heavy mass known as Bular. He quickly lands on his feet, and as I try to scramble away, he grabs my hair, pulling me back. A short yip can be heard as he catches me by my throat, and he squeezes, I scratch and wiggle trying to break free like some sort of feral animal caught in a cage. Only this cage was two times as big and three times as strong. </p><p>“B-Bular please!” I choke, tears welling in my eyes. </p><p>He smirks, clearly he enjoyed this. </p><p>“I already gave you your chance and you wasted it, <em> impure </em>.” <br/>
<br/>
</p><p>I shoot awake holding my throat.  </p><p><em> Inhale, exhale </em>.  </p><p>My cat meows at me in annoyance, seeing as I woke her up. She was laying on my face, that explains the lack of air, but why oh why did it have to be a nightmare about Bular. Rubbing my tired eyes, the late night “studying” Strickler had me do, combined with a few short hours of nightmares, did not leave me as rejuvenated as I had hoped. </p><p>“Christine! Claire and her father are waiting!” My father calls.</p><p>Oh shoot, I slept through my alarm! </p><p>“Give me 5 minutes!” I scream down the hall. I can already feel my father shaking his head in amused disappointment. </p><p>I grab my blouse, skirt, and signature earrings along with a new item, a headband. Running to the bathroom I brush my teeth and scramble to put on my outfit. No time for makeup today considering how late I was. Running down the stairs I pass by the dozens of family pictures, if only they knew….  </p><p> </p><p>Out the door and into my friend’s car. One minute to spare, not too shabby if I do say so myself. We share several laughs as we look Claire’s phone when she looks up and smiles mischievously, </p><p>“Cute headband, something new for, <em> you know who </em>?”</p><p>Her father peaks down through the rearview mirror and my face explodes in heat, I of course shove her playfully in response. </p><p>“As if, I thought it was cute so I wore it, being cute for <em> you know who </em> is just a plus side.” I smirk. Claire’s dad was clearly about to say something but lucky for me we arrived at school and Claire, catching her cues quickly, said goodbye, and dragged us out of the car. </p><p>“Bye Mr. Nuñez,” I wave. “Thanks for the ride!”</p><p>Claire nudged me, “Are you alright? You look really tired.”</p><p>I wipe my face with exhaustion, “yeah, just a late night, I had the worst dream too”</p><p>Claire smiled sympathetically, “You'll have to tell me about it later, okay?” I nodded as we reached our class. </p><p> </p><p>Even though I slept through my alarm, We still made it to school on time and into Mr. Sticklers history class with <em> you know who </em>, sitting in front of me. </p><p><em> You know who </em>, aka James Lake Jr., comes in late with Toby with an out of breath air of bewilderment. And with the usual droning from Strickler, I can’t help but notice Jim staring at my best friend. Girl code dictates of course to never go after your best friend’s crush, but who am I to control who she can and can’t love. There’s still hints of jealousy though. </p><p>Mr. Strickler notices the two not paying attention and sneaks up behind them starting the “were you paying attention” scenario, resulting with a comedic quip from Jim, and the bell ending the class before any real discussion could be continued. </p><p>“Saved by the bell huh?” I say jokingly as I pass him. Jim just lets out a quick breathy chuckle paying no mind to the comment as Mr. Strickler starts to converse with him. I make eye contact with Mr. Strickler and leave with Claire to our next class, gym. </p><p> </p><p>Now I won’t openly admit it’s my favorite class, but between you and me, it’s my favorite class. Just an hour and a half of activities to leave me pumped and release some of my built up tension. I usually finish my tasks with Claire quickly so we can hang out together, and while I did enjoy playing sports, climbing ropes wasn’t all that fun, not to mention how exhausted I was in the first place. So sitting with Claire was fine enough. Claire, Darci, Shannon, and I sit together on the bleachers while I rest my elbows on my knees, blinking slowly. </p><p>“So tell me about your nightmare Christine.” Claire says </p><p>I look up at her slowly and just huff, “Basically I was running through the forest and this giant stone creature was after me, the worst part being that it sounded like my boss,” I chuckle continuing, “and he tackled me and basically grabbed me by the neck and when I begged him to spare me, he clearly didn’t, and I woke up.” </p><p>Shannon perks up somewhat eagerly, “That sounds to me like you’re afraid of your boss, is he some sort of massive creep.” She wasn’t entirely wrong, I did hate being around him alone. </p><p>“Thanks Shan, but I didn’t need my dreams to be psychoanalyzed” I say laughing half heartedly, looking up at the people doing the ropes. Everyone took their cues that I didn’t want to answer her questions and Claire pulled out her phone. “Hey guys check out this video I found last night.” I just giggle mindlessly as they do, but my eyes land on Toby and Jim. Toby struggles to climb the rope of course and coach yells about how everyone needs to do it, but my staring is cut short when Jim quickly walks over to my group. I scramble to look at Claire’s phone, and her sensing my distress looks up. </p><p>“Buenas noches.”An audible airy laugh can be heard when he starts to speak Spanish and Claire’s curiosity is intrigued. All of us look up at him in an awkward stare and I can’t help but to try to keep my laugh in. </p><p>“You speak Spanish?” Claire asks. </p><p>Jim starts to sputter and clearly the gears are turning in his head for a response but Darci interrupts him, “Come on Claire.”</p><p>Me and Shannon burst into giggles at this fruitless success of conversation, I don’t mind as much though, that is until Claire asks him to audition for Shakespeare. A quick side glance is all I do in a moment of rage but I stop myself, why am I so mad, the play is important to her and they really do need more boys. ‘So stop being mad’ I scold myself. Claire catches up with the rest of us and we all just giggle amongst ourselves. </p><p>“Well that was awkward.” </p><p> </p><p>Changing in the locker room, I take off my gym clothes to reveal a not so hideable bruise on my waist that Darci oh so kindly points out. </p><p>“What happened?!” Both Claire and Shannon look over and suddenly I’m surrounded by my friends, “I was chasing my cat around cause she grabbed my only hair tie left and I ran into a table.” Now that wasn’t a total lie technically, I did run into something, except this something was the end of Numora’s scythes. Strickler of course, wanting to make training harder, wanted you to train in your human form in case something were to happen, it’s unlikely but why does that matter to him. </p><p>“Oh... ok” Darci says unconvinced. With the nightmare about your “boss” and a giant bruise, doesn’t seem all that convincing. “Guys I’m alright, really.” I try to smile to convince them, but that seems only to make it worse, but they drop it once again. </p><p> </p><p>The school bell rings, and Claire and I start to pack up for home, and leave separately. She goes home but I have some very important matters to attend to with Strickler. I slam his office door shut behind me in anger and he just looks up at me in annoyance. “I almost got caught because of you.” I seeth pointing my finger at him, he in turn raises an eyebrow. </p><p>“And what did I do to blow <em> your </em> cover, hm?” </p><p>“Because of your stupid late night training, my friends are now worried I’m being abused.” </p><p>Strickler just makes a confused face, “What did you say to make them think that? I’m sure you lied through your teeth.” </p><p>I blank out momentarily, this was technically my fault, “That’s besides the point, fighting with this body only makes things harder to hide!”</p><p>Strickler rolls his eyes, “It’s <em> your </em>job to lie and hide at all cost, you just have to do it better.” He pats me on the shoulder. A quick yank and suddenly my arm is behind my back, I wince in pain looking pitifully up at Strickler. He glared, “So don’t mess it up.” He let go and continued on with whatever work he was doing. </p><p> </p><p>I take my time on my way home. With all of the homework I was assigned, combined with the tasks Strickler assigned for me, I was more than happy to take my time to do it. When I finally get home I notice a note, ‘be back soon’ in my fathers handwriting, I take the note and drop my bag off in the living room, a spacious room away from the door. When you enter it, the mismatched couches (well the colors were mismatched but they were still complementary with different shades of brown), faced the wall where the tv was, with a coffee table in between them. The coffee table wasn’t much to look at because it’s white paint was faded and chipped, it did give the room a nice rustic feel though, and there were games stacked in the compartments. Just being in the room gave me the warm and fuzzies because of all the good memories with mom and dad. We used to play all sorts of games, or maybe watched movies together and would laugh and throw food at each other.</p><p> </p><p> The living room connects to the kitchen, and I’m in the mood for a snack. Walking into the kitchen I head for the fridge, “I think I’m in the mood for,” my eyes scan the contents droning on until my eyes land on, “yogurt!” I exclaim in satisfaction. Picking up the yogurt cup and grabbing a spoon from the drawer, I head into my mother’s office to start Strickler’s assignment. My mother, amazingly, is the mayor of Arcadia, and my father usually stays home to take care of me and the house. So with my mayor mom and stay at home dad, it gives me the perfect opportunity to rummage through my mother’s documents when my father is away, or while they sleep. There isn’t much too read that I haven’t already read, different bills, different reports on missing pets and the like. My main concern is on how to smuggle bridge pieces in without the police or the town noticing but nothing new has come up. That is until I notice a construction plan for a road repair a couple blocks away from the museum that holds the bridge. This plan will have an entire block closed off, which will make the perfect passage for our plan! I take a picture and send it to Strickler, deleting anything I have to delete of course, leaning back in her swivel chair. My work for Strickler is done for now, but I still have school work. I sigh and drag myself and my yogurt back into the living room. Just as I set everything up my father walks into the house. “Hey dad” I say getting up. He has his hands full in groceries, “Hey sweetie, be a dear and help me unload the groceries.” I nod and do as I’m told. </p><p> </p><p>The rest of the night is uneventful with homework and dinner going without fail, though tonight mother joined us which was pleasant enough. After dinner I finished any other assignments I had in my room. Hours pass before my parents fall asleep leaving me my opportunity to sneak out. I open my window and climb onto the roof, a flash is made as I transform and I hop into the forest quietly, ready to start the next task for Strickler </p>
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